MovieChat Forums > The Sixth Sense (1999) Discussion > What the hell happened to Shyamalan?

What the hell happened to Shyamalan?

posted 9 years ago by nine_inch_nailed
13 replies | jump to latest

This is a great movie. A genuinely great movie that surprisingly can be watched many times despite knowing the major twist (which must have been referenced and parodied a million times by now).

It's spooky, emotional, dramatic. The special effects are great, the direction, the cinematography and the simple score are all brilliant. Above all else though, the acting is top notch. No small feat given a child is involved (think The Phantom Menace, which came out in the same year).

So what the hell happened? It's been a while but I remember enjoying Unbreakable, and being left hugely disappointed by Signs and The Village. Those last two films are masterpieces compared to what he's put out since, though. Lady in the Water, The Last Airbender and, oh sweet mother of mercy... The Happening! I didn't bother with After Earth, or the recent horror film. How can someone put out something as wonderful as this (and iirc, Unbreakable also), and then continue to crap out excrement after excrement?

________
Armchair Critic Law 38:

If a film has a plot twist, overanalyse.

[–] debrisuk 9 years ago

Are you aware of the theory that if you give a monkey a typewriter and enough time it will eventually write the full works of Shakespear?

Against all odds, this particular monkey (M.K.S.) managed to write it after only a short amount of time.

[–] durandwhit30 9 years ago

Feels like he got so obsessed with the twist ending success of The Sixth Sense that he decided to make that his staple. I have not seen a film by him since Unbreakable, but whenever I see his name mentioned as director, I always assume there's going to be some twist in it. I read that his most recent film about the visit to the grandparents had a twist ending, so he hasn't given up on it.

[–] WorldWar1000 9 years ago

Feels like he got so obsessed with the twist ending success of The Sixth Sense that he decided to make that his staple. I have not seen a film by him since Unbreakable, but whenever I see his name mentioned as director, I always assume there's going to be some twist in it. I read that his most recent film about the visit to the grandparents had a twist ending, so he hasn't given up on it.

only his suspense movies have twists, the others like the last airbender and after earth are typical blockbuster type films that were both terrible. the last airbender is considered his worst film which ruined the the classic cartoons avatar the last airbenders live actions chances at a remake. it was worse than the happening. also, the happening had what I can't really call a twist, it really didn't feel like one.

{._.}
My eyes are watching you

[–] indranee19 9 years ago

My take on him?

1) He believed in his own hype.
2) He has a brilliant director's eye.
3) He is very perceptive about human nature and writes wonderful characters, but is horrible at writing plot.

4) Thank the gods that he has finally given up on movies and brought himself into TV where he should thrive with the best of them. He should always have done TV.

---
Fear not for the future; weep not for the past -- Percy Bysshe Shelley
---

[–] ac_rulz_mf 9 years ago

I think you can easily see his downfall just watching the special features for Sixth Sense.

It really seemed he wanted to make a movie that was a hit, an impact in our culture, rather than a good movie. Because of this, Night learned the wrong lessons from Sixth Sense. Instead of attempting to make great films, he just made bland films with a twist, thinking that the twist was what made Sixth Sense great.

[–] Boni-The-Sock 9 years ago

If you think of The Happening as a comedy, it's not a bad film.

I once told a man to go screw himself! Can you even imagine?! - Kilgrave

[–] diegoalexio 8 years ago

I think that his ego made him believe that he was a kind of god of movies or something. Just look is character in lady of the water, a man destined to write a book that would change the history of mandkind. And it was odd to me too on the final credits from the sixth sense, when there was just one animated special credit, like in the openning, just for him, and the rest of crew and cast has the typical scroll credits.

But I don't know, to me, this dude is like a kind of Francis Ford Coppola. It made a couple of awesomes and importants films like the sixth sense and unbrekeable, that if he wanna make crappy films the rest of his life, it's okey to me.

[–] americanadian25 8 years ago

Its a mystery. But yeah this is such a well crafted movie, its incredible how far he's fallen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Acg56OPa0-Q

[–] Horror_Metal 8 years ago

His movies definitely seemed to get worse and worse after this film, with several mediocre productions, but I thought that The Visit was actually pretty good.

Horror_Metal